Pennsylvania's Migrant Education Program (PA-MEP) is a federally funded program that supplements educational support services for migratory children. The PA-MEP assists school districts and charters in coordinating the continuity of educational services for children who have had their schooling interrupted. The PA-MEP provides formula grants to state educational agencies to establish or improve education programs for migrant children.

PDE, through Chester County Regional Education Services, contracted with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU) to conduct a comprehensive external evaluation of MEP for the 2010-11 program year. Pennsylvania is required to evaluate MEP by Title I, Part C, Sections 1301(4); 1303(e);1304(b)(1) and (2); 1304(c)(5); 1304(d); 1306(a)(1)(C) and (D), as follows:

34 CFR 200.84 – Responsibilities of SEAs for evaluating the effectiveness of the MEP. Each SEA must determine the effectiveness of its program through a written evaluation that measures the implementation and results achieved by the program against the State's performance targets in § 200.83(a)(1), particularly for those students who have priority for service as defined in section 1304(d) of the ESEA.

The purpose of the evaluation of the MEP in Pennsylvania is to examine program implementation and results and build capacity within project areas to examine results and make programming decisions based on data.

The questions that this evaluation answers include:

• To what extent are programs being implemented? • Are MEP students meeting state AYP targets? • To what extent are programs for MEP students impacting student outcomes?